Post on 04-Apr-2018
7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
2/21
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7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7.2
pale orange glow above shadowed plane of ridge
in window opposite the unmade yellow and blue
bed, an unseen bird chirping from lower left
foreground
pianist noting the two-to-one
proportion between two parallel red lines
receding into the distance, Bachs child
breaking the harpsichord he wants to play
louder
woman on phone startled by a loud
knocking on the blue front door, cop saying
stolen car was found
white of moths wings
stopped on dark green leaf, eucalyptus leaves
blowing across bright blue sky
blue whiteness
of mist against right-sloping shoulder of ridge,
pelicans gliding toward point behind GROIN sign
7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7.3
silver whiteness of cloud above right-sloping
shoulder of ridge a moment before sun appears,
small horizontal cloud floating just above it
profile of woman in blue dress reading letter
by lower left corner of map on wall, the woman
green chair on a brick red plane
man on phone
reporting the woman from East Setaukets hands
covered with flour, orange flower in a green
glass bottle on sill
Pete Sampras throwing
rackets when he was a kid, now keeps emotions
inside
seven pelicans gliding from the point
toward mouth of channel, high thin white clouds
drifting across pale blue sky above the horizon
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7.4
angle of upstairs casement windows frame
intersected by horizontal line of the ridge
above which sun rises through a film of white
cloud, sound of waves breaking into the channel
man on phone wondering how life might be inside
Beethoven piano sonata, an assault on the tonic
intensified by a development in E major
woman
on a blue mat in adjacent room slowly turning
her head to the left, breathing in the airs
nearly perfect calm
man in white cloth hat
wrapping a piece of driftwood in a blond wig,
dress found in the freebox
grey white haze
on the horizon to the left of the point, gull
landing on triangular orange tip of GROIN sign
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7.5
pale green hemlock stalk behind the darker green
of passion vine-covered fence, grey white wall
of fog in front of invisible ridge behind it
woman from East Setauket sitting in passenger
seat of blue car with a sedated 20-pound black
and white cat on her lap, woman in orange dress
recalling how Chubby learned to use magnetic cat
door
larger cat walking down hall with a crook
at the tip of its sable tail, woman at the table
imagining size of the baby
woman in red dress
thinking the pianist might be mad at the singer,
who wouldnt let him crawl into her bed at 5 AM
fog bank draped over edge of cliff on the right,
the small white cloud in pale blue sky above it
7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7.6
red-headed finch perched on the hemlock branch
followed by dun-colored female landing above it,
goldfinch disappearing into grey fog wall behind
it
man in the red jacket approaching the male
quail on a branch next to the trail, the covey
taking off to the right
woman noting breeze
playing with napkin on Skopelos, a fisherman
pouring a rum and coke in front seat of grey
truck
man in the black tee shirt returning
from basketball court with a smashed-in nose,
Margaret and Elizabeth moving to Windsor Castle
for the duration of the war
two cows on cliff
in front of pale blue width of sky below white
cloud, grey green wall of an approaching wave
7/31/2019 Cloud Ridge by Stephen Ratcliffe Book Preview
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7.7
circular orange flower above green shoulder
of bottle on window sill, light grey of sky
next to shadowed green tobacco plant leaves
behind it
the naked man waking from a dream of
hitting a ball back to the man across the court,
blond woman who cant sleep getting up to make
some hot milk
short-haired girl wanting man
not to use purple sleeping bag, calling back
later wondering if he hung up on her
woman
with hair falling across left cheek thinking
dinner fork was lost in some how is a woman
like a tornado event, missing jacket in hall
closet
faded yellow of Scotch broom on lower
slope of cliff, blue boat behind the grey swell
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7.8
grey light coming into sky above horizontal line
of ridge on left, still bright silver of planet
at edge of a grey white cloud above it
woman
from East Setauket noting that when she reads
she gets a sense of place, woman on Skopelos
reading Nietzsche on the early Greek thinkers
who thinks nothing has changed
snake stretched
below dark green chair on brick red plane, cat
crouched in left foreground
white-haired man
in maroon car looking up at man in red truck,
who honks twice as he drives by
point on right
opposite opening in grey white sky above ridge,
dark green circular shape of the pine moving
behind triangular orange tip of GROIN sign
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7.9
bright orange glow in horizontal grey white
cloud above line of ridge before sun first
appears, silhouette of small backlit bush
directly in front of it
man in faded blue
sweatshirt running in front of the white dog
beside the lagoon, not seeing man in grey car
wave
the man in the pale yellow shirt giving
pink rope to man in green shirt, who carries it
across the next stream
blond boy with red pack
glissading down slope toward the edge of a cliff,
thinking trail is still below him
downturned
curve of waning white moon in pale blue sky
above ridge, horizontal grey white cloud
suspended above the peak on the right
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7.10
downturned curve of waning white moon in pale
blue sky above right-sloping shoulder of ridge
on left, whiteness of cloud moving across below
it
white-haired man wondering how to reconcile
motivational impulses with final causes, noting
that Heidegger did with German what Cicero did
with Latin
man in black shirt leaning back
against granite rock, blue of sky above peak
behind blond boy in green shirt
man looking
down at purple flower next to trail, weathered
trunk against bright blue sky
last pink orange
glow on the right-sloping shoulder of the ridge
above white at edge of the lake, yellow orange
in plane of clouds above ridge across from it
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7.11
sunlight on left-sloping surface of ridge below
bright blue sky in right corner, still shadowed
shoulder of adjacent ridge
man in green shirt
waking from dream of looking at black and white
photo of boys left shoulder, the woman leaning
forward on the edge of the bed
man in blue
jacket stopping to pick up pieces of white
quartz, man in yellow shirt advising him
not to
silver-haired man noting Manns
Death in Venice is rewriting The Bacchae,
adding that Wagner actually died there
darker
grey plane of cloud moving from left to right
against bright blue sky, sunlit white cloud
above curve of waning moon across from it
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7.12
grey light coming into the sky above horizontal
line of ridge on left, vertical edge of waning
white moon facing pink glow on ridge opposite
it
naked man looking across at white water
pouring against granite rock on left, ridge
below small white cloud moving across blue
beyond it
blond boy in pale green shirt
picking up large green rock from edge of trail,
man throwing a walking stick across the stream
to man in blue green shirt
ladybug climbing
spear of grass in left foreground, thousands
more on the branch behind it
curve of waning
white moon in blue of sky above line of ridge,
blue green of lake in the lower right corner
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7.13
pink white petal falling from the green in front
of the fence in the window on the right, grey
whiteness of fog in window opposite unmade
yellow and blue bed
man beside red truck
watching great blue heron stalking across
horizontal plane on left, white-haired man
asleep on table across from it
man noting
proliferation of chromatic harmony in Brahms
Quartet in C Minor, the cello solo approaching
the sublime
man in pale yellow shirt on a dirt
road in dusk light, maroon car stuck five miles
back
bright blue of sky behind V-shaped line
of ridge on the left, the sound of the stream
rising from green in the foreground below it
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7.14
grey light in cloud above line of still dark
ridge, a drop of water falling into the copper
watering can below dark green gutter
naked man
waking from a dream of ex-father-in-law talking
about Lennox, Massachusetts followed by a crow
calling on cypress branch
cat in blue green
collar leaning over edge of pool on brick red
plane, woman in green jacket licking hummingbird
water from mans right ear
contralto on radio
asking to be saved from full moon full of love,
downturned curve of actual white moon in pale
blue sky above red and white peaks
the man
paddling toward blue green wave on the left,
pelican gliding in front of haze beyond it
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7.15
pair of small dark birds moving across grey
whiteness of sky in window on left, hemlock
stalk blowing below it
red-breasted finch
perched on the left side of the just-filled
feeder, the dun-colored female lifting away
across field on left
woman in black sweater
noting how edge of grey blue overlaps green
grass in foreground, colors in the girls
palette like a voice
man on phone recalling
the courage of a topspin lob on match point,
Rafters back against wall
pale blue sky above
white line of fog hanging across right-sloping
shoulder of ridge, white wingspan of pelican
gliding above windblown grey green channel
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7.16
pink orange light in film of high thin white
clouds in pale blue sky opposite the unmade
yellow and blue bed, grey white fog moving
across the top of the ridge
black and white
photo of woman lifting edge of turquoise dress
above her head, bright blue sky above the ridge
in back of her
man in a blue shirt whose blue
car was stolen, later apprehended in high-speed
chase on orange bridge
woman throwing spilled
salt over her left shoulder, woman in the black
shawl who wants to translate cloud and ridge
into Japanese
hundreds of pelicans circling
above grey green wave breaking into channel,
width of fog across top of ridge above it
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7.17
bright yellow of goldfinch on lower left side
of feeder, the red one landing on the curved
copper bar above it
naked woman telling man
about dream of the baby on the beach who wants
to be buried in sand, later covered with golden
brown pine nuts
man in the blue shirt drawing
lines below words on a page, blue under days
followed by red under eye
Einsteins ideas
born as visual and muscular action, Picasso
adding he never looked but simply found
grey
whiteness of clouds hanging against tree-lined
green canyon of ridge across channel, wingspan
of small white bird gliding from left to right
above the second-to-last house on the sandspit
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7.18
pair of small birds flapping above horizontal
grey plane in window on right, hummingbird
sucking at red penstemon flower in left
foreground
man in grey shirt waking from dream
of walking downstairs with half a grapefruit
saying slowly I turned, step by step
the man
on the radio claiming an embryo is not a person,
wanting to do more research on least ethically
contentious stem cells
pregnant woman in grey
car smiling at baby in back seat of car in left
lane, who smiles back at her
line of pelicans
gliding in front of the cypress tree to the left
of the ramp, a pair of cormorants flapping
across the waters windblown surface